During the 5th Portuguese Space Forum, held on November 5th, was launched the ESA Business Incubation Centre in Portugal (ESA BIC Portugal), which will support Portuguese companies that implement space technology in sectors such as health, transport, security, or energy.

Over the next five years, the 30 companies supported by ESA BIC Portugal can access a total investment value of 1,5 million euros, raise capital of around 7 million euros, and are expected to create more than 120 new jobs.

The ESA BIC Portugal is managed by Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) and implemented in collaboration with Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto and DNA Cascais. In addition, ESA BIC Portugal will count on multiple local, regional and national partners (business experts, technical experts from higher education institutions – namely the University of Coimbra and the University of Porto).

The launch of ESA BIC Portugal was attended by Franco Ongaro, ESA Director D-TEC, Teresa Mendes, President of IPN, João Gabriel, Rector of the University of Coimbra, Pedro Carneiro, Vice President of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, António Pires de Lima, Portuguese Minister of the Economy, and Nuno Crato, Portuguese Minister of Education and Science.

Carlos Cerqueira, Head of Innovation at IPN said that “ESA BIC Portugal has unique characteristics since it promotes the creation of startups based on state-of-the-art technologies tested in Space applications, providing these new companies with the potential to create disruptive innovations tailored for the global markets”.

Teresa Mendes, President of IPN, added that “the ESA BIC and Ambassador Platform in Portugal contribute to further accomplish IPN’s mission to support the technology transfer process and to stimulate the creation of new economic activity and skilled jobs in Portugal”.